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ESPN anchor Linda Cohn sues Brewster rink, school coach

Linda Cohn, who regularly hosts the network's flagship program "SportsCenter," received 25 stitches after a coin machine fell on her at the Brewster Ice Rink. She had been practicing for an upcoming appearance with a minor league hockey team.

An ESPN sportscaster is suing the owners of the Brewster Ice Arena after a large coin change machine fell on her, opening up a gash that required 25 stitches, her attorney said Thursday.

Linda Cohn, who regularly hosts the network's flagship program "SportsCenter," suffered a "real deep" wound to her right arm on March 27 and was taken to a hospital, Jonathan Silver told The Journal News.

"It's the kind of a machine that should not be allowed to fall on anyone under any circumstances," he said. "Imagine what would have happened if it fell on a kid. It's bad enough what happened to (Linda)."

"What does she want? Not to have a Frankenstein-like scar that looks like her hand and arm were sewn together," Silver later said in an email.

Cohn, a Connecticut resident, was practicing at the Brewster arena for a promotional appearance the next day in Hartford, where she was supposed to face minor league hockey players from a New York Rangers affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack. (The 54-year-old on-air personality was a women's team goalie at SUNY Oswego and played for the boys team at her high school.)

The Hartford event was called off after Cohn was injured. She posted on social media shortly after the mishap, saying kids playing in an arena arcade knocked the machine onto her arm.

The anchor did not miss significant time at ESPN, but was left with a permanent scar that's sensitive to the touch, her lawyer said. The lawsuit, filed in federal court last month, seeks unspecified damages against the rink at 63 Fields Lane.

Southeast Sports Complex, Players Club at Brewster Ice Arena and Steve Santini, a local high school hockey coach, are named as defendants. Attempts to reach them were not immediately successful.

According to the arena's website, it opened in 1997 near Interstate 684 and features two regulation-sized indoor ice rinks and an outdoor rink.